Cost-Minimizing Food Budgets in Ghana

Francis Addeah Darko, Benjamin Allen, John Mazunda, Rafiullah Rahimzai and Craig L. Dobbins

No 96161, 2010 AAAE Third Conference/AEASA 48th Conference, September 19-23, 2010, Cape Town, South Africa from African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE)

Abstract: Attaining the daily required nutritional recommendations is a major challenge in Ghana where the average person earns about $1.89 per day. A linear programming diet model is used to determine the cheapest basket of food items that satisfy the recommended daily nutritional requirements of the average Ghanaian. Initial findings show that an average Ghanaian requires $0.36 per day to meet his required nutritional needs. This would be met with a food basket made up of sorghum, yam, cassava, coconut and milk. With this food basket and the estimated food expenditure, the average person in Ghana would save about 80% of his/her daily earnings. Sensitivity analyses are also performed to test the robustness of the findings. The paper further highlights some of the limitations of the methodology.

Keywords: Food; Consumption/Nutrition/Food; Safety (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 16
Date: 2010-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:aaae10:96161

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.96161

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